The ACT government insists it is still on track to meet its target 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 despite emissions rising in the past 12 months.
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The increase of 174 kilotonnes more than reversed the gains of the previous year.
The government has a target to reduce emissions 40 per cent from 1989-90 levels, which would bring emissions down from 3186 kilotonnes in 1989-90 to 1911 kilotonnes in 2020.
But the target remains further from reach than ever, with Canberrans responsible for 3934 kilotonnes of greenhouse gases in 2014-15, 24 per cent higher than in 1989-90.
The figures are in the latest greenhouse gas inventory, released last week.
Environment Minister Simon Corbell said the year-on-year increase was "very slight" and largely a result of the removal of the federal carbon price, and this had affected renewable energy nationwide.
The impact would soon be "eclipsed by large reductions in emissions over the next 18 months" as the large-scale wind and solar projects funded by the ACT began operation.
While just one solar farm is operating so far, another is being built, and three wind farms are also in construction. Another three wind farms and a third solar farm are also in development. The projects are the backbone of the government's target of buying 100 per cent of the city's electricity from renewable sources by 2020, recently boosted to 100 per cent by 2025.
"The ACT achieved an increase in rooftop solar production and for the first time saw renewable energy being produced from the ACT's large-scale solar farm at Royalla," Mr Corbell said.
"Unfortunately, the ACT was not able to counteract the drop in renewable energy in the national grid. This will change in the next few years as the ACT's use of renewable energy significantly increases."
The report found per-capita emissions have fallen 13 per cent on 1989-90 levels, from 11.41 tonnes to 9.97 tonnes, although per-capita emissions are up slightly on 2013-14.
Two-thirds of the city's emissions come from electricity and other "stationary energy" – LPG, wood heaters, oil heating and gas. Electricity accounted for a third of the 174-kilotonne rise year on year – an increase the inventory puts down to people using more power, perhaps because of a colder winter or hotter summer, and to a drastic cutback in generation at Snowy Hydro with the scrapping of the carbon price, resulting in more power being bought from coal-fired generation.
More than a quarter of the city's emissions come from transport, chiefly petrol. Transport emissions were up 72 kilotonnes year on year, a rise attributed to a big increase in the consumption of diesel. The inventory said the diesel consumption could be a result of better reporting, rather than significantly increased use.
"While recent years have undoubtedly seen a shift to diesel engines in smaller motor vehicles, it is most unlikely that this shift alone could explain such a large apparent increase in consumption."
Deforestation in the ACT accounted for an extra 3.4 kilotonnes of CO₂, and reforestation for a fall of 3.6 kilotonnes, effectively cancelling each other out.
